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June 16, 2011

Dashboard mounted screen and gear level for a Myvi? It will be a strong selling point for the newly launched 2011 Perodua Myvi! Thinking back to the launch of the 1st gen Perodua Myvi in 2005, it was selling like hot cake and quickly became the best selling passenger car in Malaysia for few consecutive years. Now, with the arrival of all-new Perodua Myvi (codenamed D54T), will it be able to keep its crown?

At one glance, no doubt the car above is the successor of the 2005 Perodua Myvi. After being in the market for 6 years and sold more than 487,400 units, it is proven that Myvi is not your 'average hatchback' next door. 'Small on the outside, big in the inside', fuel efficiency, affordable pricing and decent list of equipment are some of the Myvi's best features. Now, with improved styling and better value-for-money, the 2011 Myvi has set the bar higher.

With projector headlamps, skirting on the Elegance Myvi and a more prominent slope bonnet made the Myvi looks sporty and might even catch the heart of the young-at-heart consumers. Its front end design is a huge improvement over the old Myvi, and the curvier rear end made the 2011 Myvi doesn't look like a big-butted, boring car when we see it from the rear. Purple colour also looks great on Myvi, but the salesperson told me purple colour has a waiting period 3 months (September).

The 2011 Myvi is 6cm shorter in overall length (3690mm), same width (1665mm), same wheelbase (2440mm) but 5mm lower in overall height (1545mm). Shorter length doesn't compromise the interior space though, where the length of the cabin is longer by 30mm than the old Myvi.

In the Elegance variant, the multimedia infotainment system (screen) comes with Bluetooth and GPS. DVD can be played too, but movies will not be played if the gear is set at 'D' (JPJ's regulation). The Camry-inspired instrument panel has fade-in and fade-out backlight and multi-info display which displays information such as average fuel consumption. Cool!

Chrome bits on the door panel and door latch.

A very sporty looking spoiler! Me and my friends all liked it!

Better quality floor mat and leather seat for Myvi Elegance.

The boot space is actually lesser by 17litres at 208litres compared to the old Myvi at 225litres. The reason is because of the increase distance between front row and back row to increase the rear legroom and thicker rear seat padding for better comfort. I'm actually a bit dissapointed with this because the boot space is already quite small in the old Myvi compared to Honda Jazz.

A powerplant called K3-VE engine with 1.3litre DVVT twin-cam mill is capable of producing 90bhp at 6,000 rpm and 117 Nm at 4,400 rpm is used to power the 2011 Myvi. There's only a slight increase in horsepower (+4bhp over the old model) compared to its outgoing model, but it also promises better NVH. Improved aerodynamic and engine enable 4% and 15% better fuel consumption for manual and auto transmission respectively.

Dual SRS airbags are standard across the range, but ABS, EBD and Brake Assist (BA) are only available for the Premium and Elegance version of Myvi. It's a great thing to add a roof-mounted 3 point seatbelt for the passenger sitting at the centre of rear seat. Hope an addition of Traction Control will be available for the Myvi (presumably with a 1.5litre engine) which is going to launch later this year.

Take a look at the Premium Version of Myvi:

2-tone dashboard looks inviting and looks like the steering wheel can integrate buttons! A storage compartment at the gear level area for the manual version. The trim at the centre of the dashboard looks like it came from a pre-production car though.

Standard variant:

Standard variant's rim. No ugly plastic wheel cover this time!

A pretty standard (variant) cabin...

By the way, underneath the reflector has a 'hole' to reduce flapping - build-up pressure on the rear bumper.

However, there are still some places that doesn't satisfy me:

#1 The huge oval shape door handle's 'crater', which is also found on Alza!

#2 Reduced rear headroom (although still has adequate space). The structure of the roof is now closer to the rear passenger's head! Incidentally, boot space is reduced too... I wonder why Toyota/Daihatsu designed their Passo/Boon like that.

#3 Questionable fit and finishing/QC. It might not be apparent in the photo above, but I was able to see the 'inside' of the steering wheel of the display unit.

#4 Plasticky interior. I expect it to have better cabin materials compared to the outgoing model, but the plastic and silver trims used are disappointing. Also, the cube pattern on the silver trim looks weird too.

#5 I prefer there's chrome/silver finishing on the steering wheel for the Elegance variant. It will look a bit more upmarket with those finishing.

So, what's your thought on the all-new Perodua Myvi? With more than 10,000 bookings made since the first booking day, do we have a winner? Price starts from RM43,900 to RM57,400.